Tea With Sarah Jane
by Pir8grl
Summary: This is going to be a series of scenes and vignettes, based on the premise that Clara saw Sarah Jane's adventures with the Doctor (past and present) while in his time stream, and goes to visit her. The first one appears as Chapter 4 of "Getting Better."
1. Chapter 1

Clara gazed curiously at Sarah Jane over the rim of her teacup. "Does the Doctor ever come to visit you?"

"Very rarely, and it usually requires something rather earth shattering."

Clara frowned, chewing her lip. "But…you were together for so long…"

"He doesn't like to see the damage. I was young when we traveled together, and now, well…look at me."

"You look wonderful," Clara assured her.

"That's very kind," Sarah Jane replied. "But still, I rather suspect I'm old enough to be your mother. And I **_look_** old enough to be his." She paused a moment, under pretense of sipping her tea. "Does he know that you come to see me?" she asked carefully.

"I never really mentioned it," Clara admitted. "I don't know why, exactly."

"I do. I overheard one of his other companions refer to Rose and I as 'the missus and the ex.' Not that he and I ever…but…"

"It's just a bit bizarre," Clara agreed.

"And you and he? Are you…?"

"I don't know, exactly," Clara admitted. "Sometimes I think, so, but then he goes and does something so well -"

"Alien?"

"Weird."

The two women chuckled over that.

"Clara, just remember this: whatever time you have with the Doctor is a special gift. How many other people on this planet have the chance to travel the stars, and see and do all those wonderful things?"

"I know," Clara sighed. "It does come with a price though."

"It does," Sarah Jane agreed. "And if you ever need to talk about that, you just come and find me. I promise I'll listen, and I'll understand."

"It's not exactly like I could just go to my dad and tell him that I'm having boyfriend issues with an alien that I've been traveling in outer space with!"

"Your dad?" Sarah Jane said softly. "I just thought…your mum is gone, isn't she?"

Clara nodded mutely.

Sarah Jane set down her tea cup and moved to sit beside Clara on the couch. "I know that no one can ever truly replace a parent, but if you ever need, that is...if I could help in some way…I'd consider it an honor."

Clara bit her lip for a moment, then launched herself into the older woman's arms. "Thank you," she whispered.


	2. Chapter 2

"Where are you off to?" the Doctor asked, not bothering to turn away from whatever fascinating tinkering he was doing with the TARDIS console.

"I was going to take the train into London," Clara replied, a touch evasively. "You promise not to leave without me, right?"

"Cross my hearts," he replied. "We're here for twenty four hours while the TARDIS soaks up some rift energy. All right?"

"All right," she agreed, reaching for the door.

"Give my love to Sarah," he said quietly, in a rather peculiar tone.

Clara turned back and saw that he hadn't looked up from the console. "You could come with me, you know. She'd love to see you."

"Someday, perhaps, but not just yet."

"Don't keep putting off that 'someday,'" Clara told him seriously. "People age. Things happen."

"I know," he replied in a small voice. "Off with you, then" he added in a hearty voice that rang just a touch hollow. "Don't want to miss your train. Give K9 a skritch for me!"

"Doctor, he's metal. I'd break my nails!"


	3. Chapter 3

"So," Sarah Jane began, passing Clara her tea, "you actually got to see Gallifrey?"

"Yes," Clara nodded. "I just wish I could recall it better. It would mean so much to the Doctor, if he wasn't the only one who could remember."

"How much do you recollect?"

"It was very beautiful. There was a shining city, under a crystal dome, and it was just exactly what you'd imagine, you know, when you're reading a really good science fiction novel. And the colors were amazing…so much more vivid than Earth." Clara sighed softly.

"Sounds like you remember a lot," Sarah Jane observed.

"Just broad strokes, I guess you'd say. When I try to concentrate too much on the details, I get terrible headaches. The Doctor says it's my mind's way of protecting itself, that all those lifetimes is just too much information for my brain to handle. I like talking about it with you, though, it makes it seem more vivid, just for a little while."

"At least you got to see it," Sarah Jane murmured, a trifle enviously.

"All that time you traveled together and he never took you?"

"No. It's why he brought me back home. Humans weren't allowed, he said." Sarah Jane's eyes widened with a sudden realization. "So that means…you must have been one of them…a Time Lord."

"Yes, I suppose I was. At least that time, I was born one. Better than…" Clara's face creased with a memory of horror and pain…so much pain.

"Better than what?"

"Better than getting turned into a Dalek."

"Can you tell me?"

Clara nodded. "It was a long way in the future. The starship that I worked on crashed into this planet where the Daleks warehoused all of them that were damaged or…crazy. They killed the rest of my crew, but me…well, that me was a computer genius, so they…turned me into one of them. God, that **_hurt_**…"

Sarah Jane reached out and enfolded her young friend in a fierce embrace. She shut her eyes tightly against the pain in Clara's voice. This was the price of running away with the Doctor, a young girl forced to live and die a thousand different times, and yet…

"You still wouldn't trade it, would you. Even this?" Sarah Jane whispered.

"Even this," Clara agreed, still sniffling a bit. "I know that sounds crazy, but I've seen so many amazing things! Other worlds, and the stars, so close I feel like I could just reach out and touch them! I couldn't give that up. And…he needs me."

Sarah Jane smiled, a sad little smile, and reached out and tucked Clara's hair behind her ear. "Yes, I think he does."


	4. Chapter 4

"Have you ever noticed," Clara mused aloud, "that he hardly ever dresses like a proper, normal person?"

"Well, he isn't exactly," Sarah Jane replied, chuckling.

"I mean, the leather jacket wasn't so bad, or the pinstriped suits, but that multicolored horror show! At least I could locate that one easily from a distance."

"And are bowties really considered all that fashionable these days?"

"Well, I suppose not…but it suits him. It does sort of make you wonder, though, how he ever managed to accomplish anything while sticking out like a sore thumb. An Edwardian cricket outfit on a some distant futuristic planet?"

"Or that scarf!" Sarah Jane added, gasping with barely suppressed mirth. "I was always in constant fear that it would catch on something and strangle him!"

"And your other Doctor was fairy conspicuous, as well, with the ruffles and velvet capes," Clara reminded her.

"Well, that **_was_** the seventies," Sarah Jane said, by way of excuse. "We really shouldn't be making fun of him this way," she added, guiltily.

"We really shouldn't," Clara agreed, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "But it's so much fun!"

"It is, isn't it?"

The doorbell rang, and both women tried to compose themselves as Luke ran to answer it. "Mum, look who's here!" he said excitedly, ushering the Doctor into the parlor.

"Hello, ladies," the Doctor said cheerfully. "Did you miss me?"

Clara and Sarah Jane looked at one another, then burst into gleeful chortles.

The Doctor sighed heavily, looking much put upon as he glanced from one giggling female to the other. "What? Have I got jam on my nose?"


	5. Chapter 5

Sarah Jane smiled warmly as she answered the door. "Doctor! What a lovely surprise! Where's Clara?" she added, peering over his shoulder. Her face paled. "She's not -"

"No!" the Doctor hastily wrapped his arms around his old friend. "No. No. Nothing like that." He squeezed her tight for just a moment longer. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you. Clara's just gone to spend the day at the zoo with the kids, that's all. The Maitland kids? Surely she's mentioned them?"

Sarah Jane nodded a bit shakily. Her hands gripped the lapels of his jacket tightly. "I - you just startled me. You come to see me so rarely, and never alone, unless there's something wrong."

"I know, and I'm sorry for that, too. I just wanted to talk to you, if that's OK."

"Of course it is. Come on in." She ushered him inside. "Is everything all right?" she added, seeing an odd look in his eyes.

"Yes, of course. Definitely. I think so. Ish."

"What's wrong, Doctor?"

He hunched forward in his seat, fiddling with his hands. "You know that I can sense timelines, yes? Possible futures. Not exactly what **_will_** happen, but a sense of what **_could_**. And right now, I'm sensing that something very big is coming."

"Something bad?" Sarah Jane asked carefully.

"That's just it - I don't know!"

"What can I do to help?" Sarah Jane asked, reaching out to clasp one of his hands in her own.

"You're doing it right now," he told her, smiling.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" she prompted gently.

"So many things. So very many things that I never got to say properly. Like how splendid you are, and how happy I am that you managed to find your way back to me, and how glad I am that Clara found you, too."

"You sound as if you're saying goodbye."

"I hope I'm not, but…I felt that I owed it to you to at least **_try_** to say it this time. And, I know I've no right to ask it, but if anything should happen to me…"

"Clara is always welcome here," Sarah Jane told him earnestly. "And so are you."

"I don't deserve you. Either of you. Any of you, really. Because you're right, you know. I give you a taste of my life, but you fade, so quickly, and I can't bear to watch that happen."

Sarah Jane smiled at him then, a sad little smile. "It's a two way street, I think. It's us who want to go with you, to see what you see - things only a being from another world could possibly show us, and then we expect you to think and react just like a human, and we get frustrated when you don't. Because you can't."

"Because I'm not."

"No, you're not," Sarah Jane agreed. "You are who, and what, you are. You are reckless and occasionally thoughtless and **_always_** fearless, and you have saved this world **_so _**many times. And no matter what mistakes you've made along the way, you **_deserve_** to be happy, and to be loved."

"You're kind to say so," the Doctor said quietly, "but my mistakes are rather momentous."

"So are your successes. We're still here, aren't we? The human race, on the planet Earth. That's thanks to you."

"And you, Sarah. I know about some of your adventures, don't forget," he said, finally smiling.

"I learned from the best," Sarah Jane replied, her smile mirroring his. She gripped both his hands firmly. "Now, you go and deal with whatever it is that's coming your way. And know that whatever it is, whatever happens, I **_believe_** in you. And when it's all over, you'll come back to me, won't you? So I know that you're all right?"

He sighed then, and leaned forward to kiss her forehead gently. "I promise, Sarah." The words slipped just a little too easily from his lips, and he remembered all the other promises, spoken just as easily, only to be forgotten or broken, by choice or by chance. He hoped, rather desperately, that he'd be able to keep this one.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: ** This one relies a bit heavily on The Sarah Jane Adventures, but I think you'll get it.

* * *

Clara glanced down in surprise at the pretty young girl who answered Sarah Jane's door. "Hello," she said, with a friendly smile. "You must be Sky."

"How'd you know?" the girl replied curiously.

"Sarah Jane talks about you and Luke all the time."

The youngster beamed momentarily at that. "Are you Clara?"

"I am."

"Sarah Jane told me you were coming today. She and the others are up in the attic, talking on the computer. She said I should bring you upstairs."

"That would be lovely." Clara followed her new friend inside. "Is there something wrong, Sky?" she asked gently, wondering at the child's quiet demeanor.

"You travel with him, don't you? Sarah Jane's friend, the Doctor?"

"Yes, I do," Clara replied.

Sky's face crumpled a bit. "That's who they're talking about - all day, today. Clyde and Rani and Sarah Jane, and now Jo and Santiago, on the computer. They've all met him. All except me. Is he really as wonderful as they say?"

"He is rather impressive," Clara laughed, "but don't tell him I said that."

"How can I?" Sky asked glumly. "I've never met him."

Coming to a sudden decision, Clara sat down on the steps and patted the space beside her. "I've heard you have some pretty cool adventures yourself. Wanna tell me about them?"

"Really?"

"Really really," Clara replied.

Smiling delightedly, Sky sat down beside her.

* * *

Sky had just finished regaling Clara with he tale of how she'd come to live with Sarah Jane when a strange, mechanical sort of noise filled the air. "What's that?" she asked, a trifle alarmed.

"I think you might just be about to get your wish," Clara replied, smiling as she stood up and opened the front door.

"Is that really him?" Sky squeaked, peeping around from behind Clara's back.

"Of course it's really me," the Doctor replied, beaming happily.

"Doctor, this is Sky, Sarah Jane's adopted daughter.

"I'm very pleased to meet you, Sky. Suppose we just pop up to the attic and say hello to your Mum?"

Sky nodded eagerly, heading for the stairs.

"No, not that way!" the Doctor said. "Let's take the short cut!"

"What short cut?" Sky asked, with a puzzled expression.

"My short cut," he replied pointing to the large blue police box sitting in the driveway.

"That's your ship? The one that's bigger on the inside?"

"Sure is. Wanna see?" the Doctor offered, holding out his hand.

"Yes, please!" Sky replied happily.

* * *

The TARDIS landed with a gentle thump. "Here we are, then, right back at home, in the attic, to be precise."

"I promise I won't tell Sarah Jane that you landed us in the rain forest by mistake," Sky answered, giggling.

"Sarah Jane is well acquainted with the Doctor's driving skills," Clara said.

"Oi! Who said it was a mistake? Maybe I just wanted Sky to have a little tiny adventure of her very own."

"Why?" she asked curiously.

The Doctor stooped down to see into her eyes. "Maybe because I know what it's like to be different from everyone else, and what it's like to miss your home, and your family."

"But it's not so bad when you have really good friends," Sky said earnestly.

"That's just exactly right," the Doctor told her. "Now, let's go see Sarah, shall we?"

They stepped out into the attic, Sky holding tight to one of the Doctor's hands and one of Clara's.


End file.
